Current information from TeachTech Inc. on problems, solutions, and questions...
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There has been a massive e-mail based computer virus attack over the Internet in the last few weeks that has affected many Window computer users. Here are some facts for you.

-Your Mac cannot get the virus. It can't harm your computer or your files. This is one of the excellent reasons for staying with Macintosh.

-You could forward the virus along by accident however. Don't ever forward email messages unless you created them or know them to be "clean". The current problem email messages often have an attachment file whose name ends with .pif

-You may get email messages from email system computers telling you that some of your email has been stopped because it contains a virus. You can ignore these warnings. You didn't do anything. What is actually happening is that someone with a Windows computer has your email address in their address book. They have the virus. It scours their computer for addresses and then sends itself to all of them and inserts a random address from their list as the sender.

-There are few if any viruses that Mac users have to deal with right now but if you use Microsoft software products (Office, Entourage, Word, Excel etc.) and sometimes share those files with colleagues the professional thing to do is to install anti-virus software and keep it current. Many Window computer viruses exploit security problems inherent in Microsoft software and some of your Windows using friends are not protected.

-Also, if you use Microsoft Office products, make a point of regularly checking for Security Updates that you should install on your computer. There is a new Microsoft Office update there now (10.1.5).

-Also, if your computer has to dial the phone to log onto the Internet, your email folder might be jammed with junk messages making it hard/very slow to download them. This jam may make it seem like you cannot get online at all. Depending on your service, you can log onto your mail via a web browser from another Internet connected computer and delete those messages in bulk. Let me know if you need help with this.